1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a storage operation management program, a storage operation management method and a storage managing computer. More particularly, the invention relates to a storage operation management program, a storage operation management method and a storage managing computer each capable of operating and managing replication of data area inside the same storage or among storages in accordance with information of the data areas of the storages.
2. Description of the Related Art
Technologies such as a snapshot function for doubling data inside a storage (e.g. JP-A-2001-306407) and a remote copy function for doubling data among storages in consideration of backup to cope with disasters are known as prior art technologies for improving versatility of computer systems and for achieving storages capable of backing up data for a non-stop operation of the computer systems.
The snapshot function is the one that makes it possible to conduct data backup on the on-line basis while continuing the business operations in a computer system that is to continuously operate for 24 hours and for 365 days without interruption.
According to the remote copy function, a storage of a computer system operating normally transfers updating data to a storage of a computer system installed and operating at a different remote place so that the data stored in the storage of the remote place can be brought substantially equivalent to the data stored in the storage of the computer system normally operating, and the loss of data can be minimized even when any accident occurs in the computer system normally operating.
To efficiently process a plurality of remote copy requests in the remote copy function, a technology is known that decides a remote copy schedule and a route of a line in consideration of access frequency of data areas and a condition of replication line.
All the prior art technologies described above are directed to reduce a processing load of a replication processing from the data area of a replication source to the data area of a replication destination and to improve transfer efficiency. In other words, these technologies are based on the premise that the data area of the replication source and the data area of the replication destination coexist.
On the other hand, the number of computer systems that use a plurality of storages connected with one another through SAN (Storage Area Network) or IP (Internet Protocol) by use of a dedicated storage network (mainly, Fibre Channel) and share data of a large capacity distributively stored in these storages has increased with the increase of the data capacity. Among the storages connected by SAN, etc, some of them are sometimes products of different manufacturers or have different performance such as an access speed. It has thus become more difficult to select, generate and designate the data area having reliability and the access speed corresponding to those of policy of users and applications such as the policy for a financial system, a policy for various management businesses for companies, a policy for databases, and so forth. A prior-art technology that makes it possible to generate a data area coincident with the policy of the user is also known.